Monthly Archives: July 2011

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T-20 days

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Yesterday evening, I went on my longest ride that lasted a little under 3 hours and 30 minutes and covered 56 miles.  It was my first half-iron distance ride.  There are very few places that I know of where on one bike ride, amidst the rolling hills, you can see deciduous forests, endless acres of farmland and hay bales, a breath-taking pristine lake, coniferous forests, and a Native American reservation and casino. 

There are very few words to describe how the ride made me feel, but the closest I can think of would probably be, biking in the yoop is the bomb diggity.
            
20 more days until the Koop!  I’m glad to know that I’m at least able to go the distance.  Now, just to shave off some minutes for the race.  Getting excited…!

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Boys’ Summer Photo Digest

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Post-camp meeting began by discovering Aroe’s baby cousin was being held hostage at Petland at Twelve Oaks Mall.  We considered breaking him out but security was pretty tight.  So adorable! 

Harabuhgee took the two older boys to one evening of VBS at the Metro Church before we headed back up.  They had a great time there and met new friends including Harabuhgee’s best friend from church, Elana. 

We bought the whole Kids’ Time series from camp meeting and Miss Brenda was there to meet the boys and sign the DVDs.  They were quite enthusiastic to watch it…really.  These came in handy for the long drive back.  At this point, they were also in dire need of haircuts.

Daddy did the honors of buzzing their hair off one evening.  Here is a shot of the boys before church.  They were discussing serious matters over crackers & soymilk.  Ty has decided he’s a big boy and prefers sitting on a real chair. 

Grandma Karen let us pick strawberries from her patch.  We’ve already consumed nearly 12 quarts!  This summer we made our first strawberry-rhubarb pies.  A church member from Marquette had given us several stalks of rhubarb from their garden.  “R” is for Ramoses.

As the heat wave struck last week, suit coats became inappropriate.  The boys pared down to vests to help keep cool at church.  No pun intended.

We signed the boys up for the Summer Reading Program at our public library.  Every 12 books they read, they receive a prize.  We’ve been checking out books from the library like nobody’s business.  They already received a free book of their choice and today we went to redeem another prize which was a free ice cream cone from The Lunch Bag.

To celebrate the fact that Micah attentively sat through 24 entire books and that Ty sat for 12, I treated myself to some pizza.  I decided to share with the boys.  I am on my way to becoming a professional book reader.  Manu could be a professional listener.  Micah will have to choose another profession.

Then we walked over to The Lunch Bag to get their free ice cream cone.  Ty and I shared a smoothie.  In this pic, Ty is mad dogging me because he wants more smoothie. 

Now, he is content.

On the agenda for the coming weeks:

– Israel is currently at Camp Sagola for Teen Camp this week
– Wisconsin this weekend to watch Chris’s race!
– swimming classes for the older boys at  Tech next week (Micah’s first time!)
– U.P. campmeeting
– Ministerial Retreat at Camp Au Sable
– the Koop – Israel will race his first half-iron distance triathlon!  So proud of him!

God has been so good to us and we are so thankful for His watch care and providence.  Looking forward to the rest of the summer with great anticipation… 
     

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Becoming TRUE: Cycling Edition

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You know you’re a true cyclist (according to J. Ramos) when…

1.  You are visibly sporting all of the appropriate tan lines:  shoes, shorts & bike jersey, (patch on lower-back for tri uniform), watch, sunglasses, & helmet.  Your face is multi-colored.

2.  You have a permanent black smear on your right inner-calf from your bike chain. 

3.  A bug pelts your sunglasses at 40mph and you don’t blink.

4.  On multiple bike routes, you know where all of the dogs live that would possibly attack you.  (You may have named them.)

5.  You can peel a banana with your teeth and eat it while maintaining perfect balance and speed. 

6.  Snot-rocketeering is like second-nature.

7.  You wake up one morning and your favorite jeans are, all of a sudden, super-tight at the thighs.
   
8.  Some flying insect has flown into your helmet or shirt and caused you to look absolutely ridiculous and then nearly die from an oncoming vehicle.  But that never stopped you from riding again.

9.  Unless it’s your day off, you don’t bother to do your hair.

10.  One of your goals in life is to be able to pull your kids in a bike trailer up a cat 5 hill.

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My Protégé

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So, recently, I decided to pass on my jawesome dog training skillz to my 3 year old son, Micah.  He was really interested in learning so I thought I’d give it a try.  Bentley has been very patient and eager to obey thanks to his treat of choice, Goldfish crackers.  I think the both of them have great chemistry and a bright future ahead of them.

This first video gives you an idea of the language barrier the two had to overcome:

This second video shows what a little practice and perseverance can achieve…